Bernanke, Fed Blindsided by Financial Meltdown

They didn't see it coming and had no idea what they were dealing with

They didn't see it coming.

Federal Reserve officials were largely blindsided as the financial crisis hurtled toward the U.S. economy like a freight train in 2007, according to newly released transcripts.

Even as they fretted over the health of the financial markets and growing evidence of a mortgage meltdown, central bankers seemed clueless that year to the extent of the havoc it would eventually wreak.

"The odds are that the market will stabilize," Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told the committee in August 2007, according to the transcripts, which are released each year with a five-year lag.